United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)

Abstract:

The purpose of the NHIS Disability Survey (NHIS-D) was to develop a series of questionnaires that would provide a useful set of measures while maintaining a balance between the social, administrative, and medical considerations involved in disability measurement. The NHIS-D is not limited to one definition of disability; therefore, it will allow analysts from varying programs to combine data items in different ways to meet specific agency or program needs. It is designed to collect data that can be used to understand disability, to develop public health policy, to produce simple prevalence estimates of selected health conditions, and to provide descriptive baseline statistics on the effects of disabilities.